Smithville, Oklahoma, header Lynn Dale Toon and heeler Perry Smith won the Riata Championships Rope Horse Rewards #8.5 World Series qualifier at the Lazy E Arena in Guthrie, Oklahoma, with 35.26 seconds on four head for $30,800. They finished 1.86 seconds ahead of Jake Randall and Chase Christensen (37.12).

Toon, 47, runs stocker and feeder cattle. Smith, 64, runs a dozer and trackhoe. The two practice together at home, but Sunday was the first time they’d won anything as a team.

“We’ve roped together quite a bit since February, and today’s the first time we won a check together,” Smith said. “We picked a great place to do it.”

The Long Go

Their first run nearly came apart. Smith’s horse stumbled hard in the corner, and Toon, turning the steer, thought his partner had gone down.

“I thought he fell off his horse,” Toon said. “I was looking for him, and his horse stumbled real bad in the corner, but then he caught up and cleaned him up good like he always does.”

Smith remembers it the same way.

“About the time he was picking his head up, my horse stumbled, and I was like, ‘Oh my, I’m bad late,’” Smith said. “But anyway, I got caught up and it worked out.”

On the second steer, Toon’s horse did the work.

“Steer kind of let up just a little when I roped him, and my horse just rated off real good, just kind of melted there,” Toon said. “[I] just got ahold of him, rode him around and pulled him in his loop, as he would say.”

Smith is sticking to his story on that one.

“I accidentally caught that one,” he said.

The Short Round

Toon and Smith came back high call with 26.71 on three, and Toon didn’t let it rattle him.

“I just try to block everything out and practice and just go make my run. Don’t think about it,” Toon said. “If I go get in my head, then that’s the worst thing.”

They were 8.55 on their short-round steer.

“It was a great feeling when I seen I had two feet roped,” Smith said. “The good Lord caught me. He was with me today. Give him all the credit.”

It had been a long week in Guthrie for Toon, who placed fifth and seventh in the Rope Horse Rewards #9.5 on Saturday.

“I’ve been here since the 12th. I got a little yesterday, but before that I hadn’t won nothing, and I was trying to stay positive,” Toon said. “He’s the only one I entered with today.”

The Horses

Toon headed on Double Play Okie Leo, a 2018 sorrel stallion by Playdox out of A Docksie Doke, bred by Kyle and Tammy Taylor.

“I know I can count on him. He’s a winner,” Toon said. “He’ll score and run, and you can be running full blast and one of them will let up, [and] he’ll just melt.”

Smith knows the horse well.

“I’ve tried to steal him for several years,” Smith said.

Smith heeled on JDC Theskyisthelimit, a 2007 sorrel stallion by Dont Skip Joe out of Caseys Fancy Shell, bred by Johnny Dale Cox. He goes back to Watch Joe Jack through Skatty Joe.

Four Hours From Home

Smithville sits about four hours from the Lazy E, close enough that Guthrie feels like a home game.

“It’s a great opportunity,” Smith said. “It’s a dream come true.”

Toon ropes in Las Vegas and Arizona too, but he says the Lazy E is the place to strike.

“If there’s a good one, I’m going to try to be at it, because when you strike, you need to strike here,” Toon said. “I’m so thankful that they’ve got so many good ropings right here at the E, four hours from home. The E is the place.”

“It’s kind of like home,” Smith said.